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350 A HISTORY OF PERSIA. his mission. He declared that a few days before, the Bab had appeared to him in a dream, and while reproaching him with his treatment of the na'ib had declared that he considered it beneath his dignity to punish him for the same. The Bab, it appears, had unlimited belief in the powers of credulity of those whom he encountered ; it never occurred to him to suppose that Hussein Khan was not sincere in what he said, and he therefore determined to complete his conversion by affording him a proof of his superhuman power. " You have correctly stated what I said to you," he replied ; " but it was not in a dream that I appeared : I was present to you in the body/' Upon this Hussein Khan declared himself to be convinced of the heavenly mission of the Bab. This was a great accession to the ranks of the faithful, and the powerful neophyte was forth- with promised that he should one day sit on the throne of Stamboul. It was a satisfactory prospect for the future ; but in the meantime Hussein Khan suggested that the Bab should come with him and confront the assembled moollahs and ulemah of Sheeraz. It would not have accorded with the Bab's pretensions had he declined to accede to this proposal ; and he faced the priests and doctors of the Mahomed an law with all the more confidence that he believed himself to be secure of the support of the strong arm of the governor of Fars. He boldly declared to the astonished assembly that the mission of Mahomed, which had served its purpose, was now at an end, and that he had come down from heaven to dwell amongst men for the purpose of inaugurating a new order of things. The doctors gave him an attentive hearing, and as some parts of his discourse were con-